My Home- Northern Virginia

"The Intellectual!"
(C) Allen Pearson
All Rights Reserved

I was asked by a fellow blogger to paw a post about a pawsome opportunity online. DogVacay has started a photo sharing campaign to find out how dogs represent their city and interests. A really cool idea! Where I live is a suburb with a zip code- though not far from exciting stuff, I don’t really represent it very well-

But, being the intellectual, forward-thinking, adventurous, creative, smart, exciting, artistic, curious, diverse dog that I am, I determined it would better to represent Northern Virginia- an exciting and historical suburb of Washington D.C., but don’t call my human a Washingtonian- he’ll resent it! (And probably correct you!)

I moved to Northern Virginia in 2009, and have been on an exciting journey ever since! My human came to Northern Virginia at the age of 7 and have lived in many locations since then.

Manassas, Virginia, known for the First and Second Battles of Manassas in the Civil War is where my human grew up. Manassas is full of history and historical sites to visit. You can go to visit the Old Town area which was used to bring in supplies by railroad for the war. You can walk among the current day shops, then stroll over to the museum to learn about the history.

"Antiquing for Dog House Furniture"
(C) Allen Pearson, All Rights Reserved

The Manassas National Battlefields are not far from the Old Town just across town. The Visitors Center has plenty of exhibits and even a movie about the history that happened on field surrounding it. Taking a walk through the battlefield at sunrise or sunset can be invigorating to bark the least!

Not far from home is Mount Vernon, which was the home of George Washington. A trip there makes a great day trip as it’s close, has a beautiful home, grounds and educational center to tour, but it may not take your whole day. The gardens are incredible and you can follow some trails to the Potomac. It is well documented that George Washington loved dogs and was the father of the American Foxhound. Dogs are permitted on the terrain, but not in the historic buildings and that’s fine with me- more scents outside!

A trip to Old Town Alexandria after visiting Mount Vernon is an excellent choice. Not only does it have an interesting history to enjoy (I think everything in this area has some hysterical significance of one kind or the other!!), there are several excellent places to eat and some great shops. Also, Alexandria is known for its reputation of having great places for humans and dogs to go- even out to eat.

Prefer to get back to nature? Great Falls National Park is located just west of Washington D.C. and has beautiful waterfalls and great hiking trails. You can access it from Northern Virginia or Maryland.

"Me at Great Falls National Park"
Credit: Allen Pearson, All Rights Reserved

Northern Virginia with its history, arts, diversity, shopping, restaurants and so much more is a great place to visit. Should you want to visit and you cannot bring your buddy with you, DogVacay can assist you in finding a pet sitter, you can do a quick search here!